Frances Whitehead, Hortus Obscurus (The Dark Garden), 1997

23 varieties of plants, two limestone benches, iron border

Frances Whitehead is an amateur botanist and natural scientist, turning plants and the practices of topiary into art. Her work Hortus Obscurus (The Dark Garden), 1997, builds associations with evil, the sinister and the funereal using seduction as a didactic tool. Hidden in a nook of the Museum Lawn, this work is intended to be a surprising display–a living garden with an atypical view of nature that is most often associated with “greenness” rather than “darkness.”  

This installation is an encyclopedic collection of the darkest varieties of many well-known and some lesser known plant varieties. Whitehead has designed the antithesis of a typical garden by selecting trees and plants with black, purple and brown flowers and foliage, with a contrived and mannered staging. An ecological statement, calling for a greater awareness of the botanical world, this provocative garden installation is complete with a set of stone benches, inviting the visitor to contemplate the future of our natural world.

Laumeier Sculpture Park Commission with funds from the Laumeier Docents

Location: Museum Circle